View full sizeAn evolving world of baseball journalism suggests that the process for adding new members to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. should also be updated, says Bill Livingston.AP file

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The voice of summer was taking his verbal cuts and getting some wood on the ball.

"What if the broadcasters of the various teams said, 'Hey, we pay the rights fees, we make the money for the sport, and you newspaper guys can't be around the batting cage anymore?' That would be pretty selfish and short-sighted of us, wouldn't it?" said Indians play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton on the day the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) elected no one to the Hall of Fame, as a principled protest against the steroid era.

The common view by critics is that the BBWAA is almost an archaic institution, jealously guarding its rights, suspicious of and inimical to the electronic media that now cover the game. For many years, newspapers, along with radio, were the usual source of information and publicity for baseball teams. Those days are gone with the Pony Express.

At Boston Garden in the early 1970s, for example, a "runner" placed typed sheets of copy paper in a wire basket at courtside during the Boston Celtics games. A worker then hauled on a rope attached to a roof-top pulley, which raised the wobbly basket to a level high above, where Western Union operators waited to transmit the reporter's story. It was more sophisticated than smoke signals -- barely.

In the 2013 HOF election, a total of 569 ballots were cast with 427 votes required for election. Hall of Fame voting is restricted to BBWAA members of 10 years standing or more. Reporters who held membership cards long enough, then joined dotcoms that cover the sport on a consistent basis, can vote for the Hall of Fame, subject to approval by a screening committee. That clause allows dotcoms from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Yahoo and other organizations to be enfranchised.

Reporters who covered baseball for the required period of time, then moved to other beats during their careers, also remain BBWAA members with a vote in perpetuity, even if they currently cover no games.

Retired reporters also retain the voting privilege they earned years before.

View full sizeTom Hamilton has certainly seen more baseball over the last couple of decades than many BBWA members. Bill Livingston says Hamilton and his broadcast brethren deserve a chance to help decide Hall of Fame candidacies. Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer

I am not a proponent of voter suppression, either in politics or in sports. Experience is the biggest criterion in the BBWAA's determination of voter eligibility.

To add more contemporaneous knowledge, however, the organization should make broadcasters eligible if they meet the experience requirement. The broadcasters saw all of the players of the steroid generation on a daily basis. Their inclusion in the voting process would in many ways modernize the electorate. Maybe they would filter their vote
through the same lens of cultural outrage, but more empirical evidence of the on-field ability of players would be part of their decision-making.

It simply seems silly that someone like Tim McCarver does not have a vote, and I do.

The objection, made by some baseball writers whose work demands respect, is that no one who is paid by a club should have a say in conferring the ultimate honor on players. That's because it is a conflict of interest. "That attacks the integrity of broadcasters. All of us love the game enough to take a Hall of Fame vote seriously," said Hamilton.

As for the issue of being paid by teams, eligible MLB.com writers of sufficient experience have votes for the Hall of Fame. A paycheck from Major League Baseball already provides the appearance of a conflict of interest, even though it is seldom the reality.

Baseball writers, like the fans they serve, care deeply about the game. It is why no other Hall of Fame voting creates the annual controversy of the Cooperstown results. If the BBWAA does anything in increasing the size of its membership, the move would have to be approved by the Hall of Fame directors. So in some ways, the Hall of Fame has the final say in protecting itself.

Adding the voices of summer, however, would inform, improve and energize the electorate for the game's highest award.

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